The Staying Power of Content Marketing

Written by Romario Kosasih | Graphics by Yusak Prahadi

Did you know that global online content consumption for the average person reaches seven hours a day? This shows that content marketing is still relevant and has a place today. No wonder brands continuously churn out content to keep up with demand. But how can you do it right?

David Austin, Click2View’s Content Director, recently participated in a co-branded webinar with Lanturn, a corporate and financial services startup, entitled Content Is Still King: Why Content Is So Important For a Customer-Centric Marketing Strategy.

Moderated by Kirsty Tsang, Lanturn’s Head of Marketing, the webinar also featured Kris LeBoutillier, a video content director and storyteller who has worked for Visa and National Geographic. It was aimed at SMBs and SMEs trying to implement a content marketing strategy.

What Is Content Marketing and Why It Matters?

“Content marketing is creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content. It should be customer-centric, meaning it answers their questions and piques their interest,” explained David. When creating content, you need an end goal. It could be to nurture leads, drive traffic to an e-commerce site or increase brand awareness. 

A Statista survey found that the top three goals of using content in marketing are to create brand awareness, educate the audience, and build credibility. “This is what differentiates content marketing from other forms of marketing and advertising; it is not necessarily ‘hard sell’ all the time, but to inform your audience,” says David. 

Informing your audience means your content offers value to them, giving them a new perspective and how-to guides relating to your industry. 

The Lanturn Example

David named Lanturn as a great example. They provide consistent blog posts (highlighting the importance of a content calendar) that relate to their services, such as corporate incorporation and corporate tax filing in Singapore, appointing a directorship, or helping startups with due diligence when it comes to fundraising. 

They also published longer pieces of content (e-books) on topics, such as comprehensive guides on how to fundraise in Singapore or how to start a small business in Singapore. 

The Visa Example

When Visa was a sponsor for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Korea, it decided to create a content marketing strategy around the event, piggybacking on the trend and leveraging moment marketing. “After searching on Google and doing SEO research, we realised there were no how-to guides on getting from Seoul to Pyeongchang,” said Kris.

Visa decided on the video route, as most people are visual learners, with the help of Click2View. We recorded and edited the video where an influencer boards a train from Seoul to Pyeongchang, paying for the trip with Visa; not an “overt” approach where Visa is at the centre, but it emphasises the benefit of using Visa for payments during the event. 

The result? More than 100,000 organic views. “This shows the importance of researching people’s intentions and what they need. It all comes back to creating valuable content for the audience,” says Kris. 

Should You Follow Trends?

Producing relevant content is necessary to keep your brand in the public’s consciousness and be top of mind. Harking back to the Visa example, it leveraged one of the biggest sporting events globally to stay relevant to their audience. However, trends can be influenced also by the types of content available.

The content marketing landscape is continuously evolving, following in the footsteps of tech that has become more readily available and sophisticated. Today, brands are not only active in social media; they also offer several virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) experiences or even the metaverse to satisfy customers’ demand for exploring the latest trends.

“Don’t follow trends just for the sake of it; you must have a justifiable reason and budget to do it. After all, VR and AR tech doesn’t come cheap,” says David. While trying something new can be exciting, it cannot be the only reason for doing so. After the initial ‘hype’ dies down, would you have enough resources to maintain it?

With the content marketing revenue predicted to reach US$137 billion in 2026, a significant increase from US$76 billion in 2022, and the fact that 97% of businesses have a content marketing strategy in place, content marketing is not fading away anytime soon. Most businesses have realised the benefits of content marketing and utilise it for the better of their business.

Read more from Click2View:

1. Content Strategies Compared
2. Five Reasons Newsletters Still Work
3. Kill Your Darlings, They’re Just Words
4. Deepfakes, Elon, and the Future of Celebrity Endorsement

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Click2View is Southeast Asia’s premiere full-service independent B2B content marketing agency servicing clients like Microsoft, Google, Visa, Prudential, and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.